Sunday, January 15, 2017

This time around we planned our trip way in advance, gave
our passports for VISA three weeks before the date and everyone we spoke to
told us that they had got their VISA within one week and thus we had no reason
to worry. All bookings were done, payments made but if you have read my blogs before
then you would know we always end up having some twists and turns in almost all
our trips. So here we are ready to fly out, tickets done, hotels booked and
the main thing NO VISA.

5 days before our
travel date we were confident that we would get the VISA, still positive and a
little nervous tried to find out from few contacts if the process can be
hurried up but no luck.

4 days before the travel date Aakaash finally went to the
embassy and they had no news about the VISA and could not guarantee if we would
receive it in another 4 days.

3 days before the flying date, we were as nervous as could
be and finally decided to cough up the extra buck to speed up the VISA process
however we were specifically told there was no 100% guarantee still.

2 days before our flying date we are sweating and shitting
bricks, yet no new and the embassy people who were a little irritated by our
constant inquiry.

1 day before our
travel…phewwwww finally Aakaash got the passports from the embassy with our
VISAs… the additional cost to speed up
the VISA process for all 4 of us did mark a dent to our trip but finally we
were ready to board.

When all our bearings fell into place, the excitement
started since this was going to be our first road trip and that too with my
sister. First vacay with my sister abroad who was doing her post grad from
Stirling University on full scholarship which for me is definitely one of her
big achievements. Well technically I was going there to visit her and then she
was accompanying us to a few of the places. She couldn’t do it all coz she had her
dissertation to finish. Finally, we started our journey in the morning from
Nairobi and reached Edinburgh at 9:30 at night. We had already booked a car, so
all we had to do was pick it up from the airport parking and we headed straight
towards Stirling which is in Central Scotland. Instead of going to our B&B
we headed straight to where my sister was staying, wanted to surprise her and
was also eager to meet her but it backfired since she was not there in her
apartment and was studying in the library so we just went to our B&B.

There was a sweet surprise waiting for us – a beautiful
bouquet which she had left earlier that evening. I really liked the concept of
B&B which I was experiencing for the first time. We were so tired after the
long journey that we just changed and crashed in this cozy little Scottish
house. Tomorrow would be a fresh new day to start our first ever 13-day long
road trip. Was truly looking forward to this wonderful experience of geting up
every morning in a new city.